Gatefold double LP version. The Moritz Von Oswald Trio opens a new chapter. There's a new configuration to the project, with Tony Allen joining original members Moritz von Oswald and Max Loderbauer. Allen, the legendary drummer who's amassed a formidable catalog both as a solo artist and as part of Fela Kuti's band, has taken over percussion duties from Vladislav Delay. Together, von Oswald, Loderbauer, and Allen form something close to a dream team, two masters of the electronic sphere meeting an afrobeat pioneer. Allen had already established a rapport with the group before they entered the studio to record Sounding Lines -- he's been touring with von Oswald and Loderbauer for more than a year, playing live shows around the world. There has been an evolution on each new Moritz Von Oswald Trio record, and Sounding Lines is no different. The album, which was mixed by Ricardo Villalobos, maintains the project's trajectory -- a fearless exploration of dub techno, classical music, and jazz -- but the prevailing mood feels looser and more organic than ever before. Allen's imperious percussive work sits tantalizingly in the mix. His drums meet the electronics of von Oswald and Loderbauer in a way that renders the project in new, vivid colors. There are 4/4 tracks, beatless interludes, and complex jazz structures, with propulsive recordings ("3") coexisting alongside more languid moments ("1"). Sometimes Allen provides flourishes of drums (notably on "4") while at other times spectral synths come to the fore (as on "5"). Von Oswald, a masterful composer and arranger with a deep understanding of space, paints the crevices of each composition on Sounding Lines with rich detail. Individually, von Oswald, Loderbauer, and Allen are formidable and hugely influential musicians. As a trio, they've conjured something remarkable. Tony Allen, drums; Max Loderbauer, synthesizers; Moritz von Oswald, percussion sequencing, synthesizers, additional electronics. Artwork by Marc Brandenburg.

The Moritz Von Oswald Trio opens a new chapter. There's a new configuration to the project, with Tony Allen joining original members Moritz von Oswald and Max Loderbauer. Allen, the legendary drummer who's amassed a formidable catalog both as a solo artist and as part of Fela Kuti's band, has taken over percussion duties from Vladislav Delay. Together, von Oswald, Loderbauer, and Allen form something close to a dream team, two masters of the electronic sphere meeting an afrobeat pioneer. Allen had already established a rapport with the group before they entered the studio to record Sounding Lines -- he's been touring with von Oswald and Loderbauer for more than a year, playing live shows around the world. There has been an evolution on each new Moritz Von Oswald Trio record, and Sounding Lines is no different. The album, which was mixed by Ricardo Villalobos, maintains the project's trajectory -- a fearless exploration of dub techno, classical music, and jazz -- but the prevailing mood feels looser and more organic than ever before. Allen's imperious percussive work sits tantalizingly in the mix. His drums meet the electronics of von Oswald and Loderbauer in a way that renders the project in new, vivid colors. There are 4/4 tracks, beatless interludes, and complex jazz structures, with propulsive recordings ("3") coexisting alongside more languid moments ("1"). Sometimes Allen provides flourishes of drums (notably on "4") while at other times spectral synths come to the fore (as on "5"). Von Oswald, a masterful composer and arranger with a deep understanding of space, paints the crevices of each composition on Sounding Lines with rich detail. Individually, von Oswald, Loderbauer, and Allen are formidable and hugely influential musicians. As a trio, they've conjured something remarkable. Tony Allen, drums; Max Loderbauer, synthesizers; Moritz von Oswald, percussion sequencing, synthesizers, additional electronics. Artwork by Marc Brandenburg.

Meditative, absorbing dance music in true Moritz Von Oswald style -- at times seemingly transfixed by its own elements, and minimal almost to the vanishing-point, but quickly kicking and amassing, with the lethal dub-wise density of the classic Berlin sound. Twelve minutes long, trenchant and forbidding, the dub itself is a kind of deep Fort-Da gambit which scoops your brain out for a quick sluice, before replacing it slightly skewed.

After two previous studio albums and one live album through Honest Jon's, the Moritz Von Oswald Trio -- Moritz Von Oswald, Max Loderbauer (NSI/Sun Electric) and Sasu Ripatti (Vladislav Delay/Luomo) -- returns with Fetch, their most fully-realized voyage yet. The Trio operates at the bleeding edges where musical lineages collide. Feeling for the shared heartbeat that pulses through dub, techno and jazz, it seeks out points of contact before exploding them outward into hypnotic explorations of rhythm, texture and tone. Fetch further cements the Moritz Von Oswald Trio's status as a unique voice in modern electronic music -- as supple, intuitive and alive as the most exploratory of jazz. Recorded in August 2011, Fetch finds Von Oswald, Loderbauer and Ripatti in a darker and more driving mood than on previous albums. Joined by ECM's Marc Muellbauer on bass (from second album Horizontal Structures) and Tobias Freund (for the first time since debut Vertical Ascent), to add live effects in real time, they laid down the foundations swiftly, with the entire recording completed in around four hours. Later, instrumental overdubs were added by Jonas Schoen (flute, bass clarinet, saxophone) and trumpeter Sebastian Studnitzky. As with their previous recordings, at the roots of the Trio's third studio album lie the same concerns which informed Von Oswald's pioneering work with Mark Ernestus as Basic Channel, Maurizio and Rhythm & Sound. At once umbilically connected to and completely distinct from all the musics that they draw from, the Trio's subliminal musings on the connections between musical forms are expressed by Fetch as a series of beguiling contradictions. Rigid vs. fluid; playful vs. deadly serious; machine vs. human; sensual vs. austere: all of these seemingly opposing forces are allowed to intermingle across four longform tracks. This is crackling, charged music -- electronica performed live, the players' neural impulses flowing into their instruments. Play loud through large speakers, and allow it room to breathe: these are sonic worlds that reach out and swallow the listener whole.

Gatefold double LP version. After two previous studio albums and one live album through Honest Jon's, the Moritz Von Oswald Trio -- Moritz Von Oswald, Max Loderbauer (NSI/Sun Electric) and Sasu Ripatti (Vladislav Delay/Luomo) -- returns with Fetch, their most fully-realized voyage yet. The Trio operates at the bleeding edges where musical lineages collide. Feeling for the shared heartbeat that pulses through dub, techno and jazz, it seeks out points of contact before exploding them outward into hypnotic explorations of rhythm, texture and tone. Fetch further cements the Moritz Von Oswald Trio's status as a unique voice in modern electronic music -- as supple, intuitive and alive as the most exploratory of jazz. Recorded in August 2011, Fetch finds Von Oswald, Loderbauer and Ripatti in a darker and more driving mood than on previous albums. Joined by ECM's Marc Muellbauer on bass (from second album Horizontal Structures) and Tobias Freund (for the first time since debut Vertical Ascent), to add live effects in real time, they laid down the foundations swiftly, with the entire recording completed in around four hours. Later, instrumental overdubs were added by Jonas Schoen (flute, bass clarinet, saxophone) and trumpeter Sebastian Studnitzky. As with their previous recordings, at the roots of the Trio's third studio album lie the same concerns which informed Von Oswald's pioneering work with Mark Ernestus as Basic Channel, Maurizio and Rhythm & Sound. At once umbilically connected to and completely distinct from all the musics that they draw from, the Trio's subliminal musings on the connections between musical forms are expressed by Fetch as a series of beguiling contradictions. Rigid vs. fluid; playful vs. deadly serious; machine vs. human; sensual vs. austere: all of these seemingly opposing forces are allowed to intermingle across four longform tracks. This is crackling, charged music -- electronica performed live, the players' neural impulses flowing into their instruments. Play loud through large speakers, and allow it room to breathe: these are sonic worlds that reach out and swallow the listener whole.

This is the third album by The Moritz von Oswald Trio, comprised of members Moritz von Oswald (Basic Channel, Rhythm & Sound), Max Loderbauer (NSI, Sun Electric), and Sasu Ripatti (Vladislav Delay, Luomo). This time, the album is enriched and expanded by guitar contributions from Paul St. Hilaire (also known as Tikiman), and double bass courtesy of Marc Muellbauer (via ECM). Horizontal Structures is palpably a more open, more expressive album than the previous studio recording, Vertical Ascent. There is more contrast, more light and shade. St. Hilaire and Muellbauer add fresh drama and swing to the intimate tonal and rhythmic interactions of the core grouping. The coherence of the five-piece is remarkable; the boundary between acoustic and electronic undone. The group's evolution is firmly signaled in the opener, "Structure 1." There's a lush, romantic quality to the playing and arrangement that has not been heard before: the guitar licks have a bluesy lilt, the bass imparts melody as well as physical presence, the synth sequences are more painterly, looser somehow, and Ripatti's percussion roams feelingly. "Structure 2" is like '70s spy-flick jazz or groove-heavy Krautrock stripped to its barest essence, Loderbauer and von Oswald's electronics glistening in a sticky cobweb of reverb and delay. The languidly stepping "Structure 3" faintly recalls von Oswald's work with Mark Ernestus as Rhythm & Sound, with St. Hilaire's chords hanging thick above bone-dry drum machine drift. Lastly, "Structure 4," the track structurally closest to techno, is pervaded by a sense of mischief, with Muellbauer's strings -- plucked, bowed, scraped -- coming to the fore. For all its complexity, this is also a very playful album, and the Trio's increased confidence and empathy as improvisers allow them to indulge flights of percussive fancy, sudden about-turns, and vectors into the unknown. Horizontal Structures sounds, above all else, free.

Gatefold 2LP version. This is the third album by The Moritz von Oswald Trio, comprised of members Moritz von Oswald (Basic Channel, Rhythm & Sound), Max Loderbauer (NSI, Sun Electric), and Sasu Ripatti (Vladislav Delay, Luomo). This time, the album is enriched and expanded by guitar contributions from Paul St. Hilaire (also known as Tikiman), and double bass courtesy of Marc Muellbauer (via ECM). Horizontal Structures is palpably a more open, more expressive album than the previous studio recording, Vertical Ascent. There is more contrast, more light and shade. St. Hilaire and Muellbauer add fresh drama and swing to the intimate tonal and rhythmic interactions of the core grouping. The coherence of the five-piece is remarkable; the boundary between acoustic and electronic undone. The group's evolution is firmly signaled in the opener, "Structure 1." There's a lush, romantic quality to the playing and arrangement that has not been heard before: the guitar licks have a bluesy lilt, the bass imparts melody as well as physical presence, the synth sequences are more painterly, looser somehow, and Ripatti's percussion roams feelingly. "Structure 2" is like '70s spy-flick jazz or groove-heavy Krautrock stripped to its barest essence, Loderbauer and von Oswald's electronics glistening in a sticky cobweb of reverb and delay. The languidly stepping "Structure 3" faintly recalls von Oswald's work with Mark Ernestus as Rhythm & Sound, with St. Hilaire's chords hanging thick above bone-dry drum machine drift. Lastly, "Structure 4," the track structurally closest to techno, is pervaded by a sense of mischief, with Muellbauer's strings -- plucked, bowed, scraped -- coming to the fore. For all its complexity, this is also a very playful album, and the Trio's increased confidence and empathy as improvisers allow them to indulge flights of percussive fancy, sudden about-turns, and vectors into the unknown. Horizontal Structures sounds, above all else, free.

This is the highly-anticipated debut full-length release by The Moritz von Oswald Trio, comprised of members Moritz von Oswald (Basic Channel, Rhythm & Sound), Max Loderbauer (NSI, Sun Electric), and Vladislav Delay (Luomo). Through Basic Channel and Rhythm And Sound -- his collaborations with Mark Ernestus -- Moritz von Oswald first of all conjured from thin air -- then comprehensively mapped out -- the grounds of a deep exchange between real-deal Jamaican dub and classic, Detroit-style techno. The duo's accomplishment and influence are immense. The repercussions of their work within electronic dance music have been incalculable. Though a departure, Vertical Ascent retraces various signatures of the earlier styles -- the fastidious density of sound, the massive bass and detailed upper registers ("a frequency massage," Ricardo Villalobos has called the album), the stripped, stepping repetitiousness, the seriousness. The striking differences stem from the qualities of live performance (the driving, clattering percussion in particular, and the loose, improvisatory approach), the exploded palette of sounds, including a trace of steel drums, something like a cuica -- and of course, most of all -- the fresh line-up. Vladislav Delay is a drummer and electronic musician from Finland -- like von Oswald, trained in classical percussion (while the third member studied classical piano for 20 years) -- who released a landmark album on Basic Channel's Chain Reaction imprint, before working with a diversity of artists (under pseudonyms like Luomo and Sistol), from Massive Attack to the Scissor Sisters. On Vertical Ascent, he plays home-made metal percussion. From Munich, Max Loderbauer was a partner in the ambient duo Sun Electric. Behind the scenes, his work has ranged between Tresor and Can's Spoon Records. In 2004 he teamed up with Tobias Freund to form NSI (Non Standard Institut). On Vertical Ascent, he plays synthesizers, alongside von Oswald, who also contributes Fender Rhodes and additional percussion. At the heart of Vertical Ascent is a dream crossing of Basic Channel, Larry Heard and Can -- as at home with calypso as it is Stravinsky.